During its
65th Session in Geneva, the UN Committee against Torture
(CAT) investigated IGM practices in the Netherlands.

Now the Committee sternly reprimanded the Netherlands,
unmistakably condemning"unnecessary and
irreversible surgery and other medical treatment [...] performed on
intersex children without informed consent and impartial counselling" as
well as the"[lack of] any inquiry, sanction or reparation
and that there is no specific legal provisions providing
redress and rehabilitation to the victims".

UN-CAT further explicitly obliged the Netherlands
government to "[t]ake the legislative, administrative and other
measures necessary to guarantee the respect for the physical integrity
and autonomy of intersex persons", to "[g]uarantee impartial
counselling services and psychological and social support for all
intersex children and their parents", to "[u]ndertake
investigation" of cases IGM practices, "punish
perpetrators" and "ensure that the victims are provided with
redress including adequate compensation" (see full
binding recommendations below after the break).

Read below excerpts from and references to all relevant documents
during the CAT review of the Netherlands, starting with a good
question on IGM by the Committee in its "List of Issues prior to Reporting
(LoIPR)":

Timeline CAT Netherlands 2015-2018

• During its 56th Session in November December 2015, CAT
drafted the List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LoPIR) for the
Netherlands with questions to the State party to be answered in its State
report.

• Although none of the NGO or NHRI reports submitted for LoIPR mentioned
Intersex Genital Mutilation, the LoIPR published in
January 2016 contained a question on IGM
practices in the Netherlands under CAT art. 14,
"Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment" punishable under the Convention
(CAT/C/NLD/QPR/7,
para 31):

«31. Please provide information on the amendments to the Medical
Research Act in relation to non-therapeutic medical research involving minors
and adults who are incapable of giving informed consent. With regard to persons
with variations of sex development (intersex persons), please clarify whether
unnecessary medical or surgical treatment aimed at determining the sex of a
child is permitted and performed on children and adults who are incapable of
giving informed consent. If so, please indicate which criminal or civil
remedies are available for victims in these cases and whether they are subject
to any statute of limitations.»

• In the Netherlands State report under LoIPR published in
September 2017, the government gave some rather vague answers
(CAT/C/NLD/7,
paras 188-190)

«Question 31

The Netherlands

188. The Medical Research (Human Subjects) Act has been amended with
respect to the norms for research involving minors and decisionally incompetent
adults. The Act entered into force in 1999 and contained a highly restrictive
provision governing research involving these subjects. In practice it proved
too restrictive, creating unnecessary obstacles to the development of new
therapies for these groups. For this reason, the statutory options for such
research have been slightly expanded to conform with the international norms
for clinical drug trials to be established under the Clinical Trials Regulation
(CTR) EU No. 536/2014. More specifically, this means that non-therapeutic
research using these groups is permitted if the trial involves minimum risk and
minimum burden compared with the standard treatment for the condition the
subject is suffering from.

189. Section 2 of the Care Sector (Quality, Complaints and Disputes) Act
(WKKGZ) obliges care providers to provide good quality care. At a minimum, this
means that care providers must act in accordance with professional standards,
which includes obtaining informed consent. This Act is general in scope and
therefore covers the care and treatment of intersex persons. Unnecessary
medical and surgical treatments do not in principle constitute good quality
care. The IGZ can enforce the law where care providers are carrying out
procedures that are not in accordance with professional standards.

190. Under the WKKGZ a patient or parent can lodge a complaint with the
help of a complaints official (free of charge). Complaints must be dealt with
within six weeks (with a possible extension to ten weeks) preferably by means
of an open discussion between patient/parent and the care provider. If this is
unproductive, the patient/parent can submit the dispute to an independent
dispute settlement body, which can give binding decisions and grant
compensation up to a maximum of €25,000. The patient/parent can also submit the
dispute to a civil court.»

• A Joint NGO report (INT/CAT/CSS/NLD/32784,
paras 5-17, 30-33) by Nederlandse organisatie voor seksediversiteit
(NNID) et. al submitted in September 2018 provided
evidence of the ongoing practice and the failure of
the government to act despite complaints by intersex organisations (p.
3-7), as well as of the lack of access to redress and justice
for IGM survivors (p. 10-11).

• During its
65th Session in Geneva, CAT reviewed the Netherlands on
20-21 November 2018, and raised IGM
practices. While the Summary records of
Session 1 do not mention a question about IGM, the records of
Session 2 contain a non-answer on intersex
(para 25) and a follow-up question on lack of redress by CAT
expert and Country Rapporteur Mr. Abdelwahab Hani (para 78),
however, again no follow-up answer is mentioned:

«25. [Mr. de Weever (Netherlands), speaking on behalf
of the Government of Sint Maarten] Sint Maarten did not currently have a
medical research policy in relation to intersex persons.»

«78. [Mr. Hani (Country Rapporteur)] The Committee had
received reports that the ill-treatment of intersex persons routinely went
unpunished in the State party and that no compensation was provided to victims.
[...]»

• On 7 December 2018, CAT published the advance version of
its Concluding Observations with binding
recommendations for the Netherlands, including a strong
reprimand for IGM practices (paras 52-53), as well as generally
reminding the State party of its obligations regarding redress
under CAT art. 14 and CAT general comment No. 3 (2012) on the implementation of
article 14 (para 54):

52. The State party is concerned at reports that unnecessary and
irreversible surgery and other medical treatment are performed on intersex
children without informed consent and impartial counselling. It is concerned
that these procedures, which cause long-term physical and psychological
suffering, have not been the object of any inquiry, sanction or reparation and
that there is no specific legal provisions providing redress and rehabilitation
to the victims.

53. The State party should:

(a) Take the legislative, administrative and other measures
necessary to guarantee the respect for the physical integrity and autonomy of
intersex persons and to ensure that no one is subjected during infancy or
childhood to non-urgent medical or surgical procedures intended to decide the
sex of the child without his or her informed consent;

(b) Guarantee impartial counselling services and psychological
and social support for all intersex children and their parents, so as to inform
them of the consequences of unnecessary and non-urgent surgery and other
medical treatment to decide on the sex of the child and the possibility of
postponing any decision on such treatment or surgery until the persons
concerned can decide by themselves;

(c) Guarantee that full, free and informed consent is ensured in
connection with medical and surgical treatments for intersex persons and that
non-urgent, irreversible medical interventions are postponed until a child is
sufficiently mature to participate in decision-making and give effective
consent;

(d) Undertake investigation of instances of surgical
interventions or other medical procedures performed on intersex persons without
effective consent and prosecute and, if found responsible, punish perpetrators.
It should also ensure that the victims are provided with redress including
adequate compensation.»

Intersex Genital Mutilations • 17 Most Common
Forms
HumanRights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex
AnatomyIGM – Historical
Overview•What is
Intersex?•How Common are
IGMs?>>>
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"Human Rights For Hermaphrodites Too!"

StopIGM.org is an international human rights NGO of survivors and allies fighting Intersex Genital Mutilations (IGM) in children's clinics, and for the right to physical integrity and self determination for all children born with 'atypical genitalia', or Variations of Sex Anatomy. IGM Practices are a serious human rights violation and MUST STOP.